In today's IT infrastructure, high availability is of paramount importance. Specifically, critical (and sometimes non-critical) components within an IT infrastructure are often layered in redundancy. For example, primary servers may be supported by backup servers; primary switches may be supported by backup switches; primary power supplies may be supported by backup power supplies; and primary storage systems may be supported by backup storage systems.
Oftentimes, the various IT components mounted within IT racks consume considerable power and, therefore, produce considerable heat. Accordingly, these various IT component need to be provided with ample cooling in order to avoid heat-related failures.